'Another incredibly emotional occasion' - Sprinter Sacre's return to greatness

Greatest Festival Races
8 Days To Go – No. 8

Sprinter Sacre with the ultimate comeback
Champion Chase
March 16, 2016

Great sport is nothing without context. Without context, we would undoubtedly be hailing Sprinter Sacre's 2013 Champion Chase win as the finest hour of his amazing career, more so than this less spectacular affair, won by an emphatic three and a half lengths rather than a yawning 19, characterised by undoubted superiority rather than by effortless, imperious destruction. But that would be to ignore what had gone on in the intervening three years.

In his pomp, 'Sprinter' had been quite possibly the best, surely the most stunning, two-mile chaser we had ever seen, racking up an uninterrupted sequence of seven Grade 1 victories, encompassing two Cheltenhams, two Aintrees and a Punchestown, as he swatted aside all opposition that he hadn't already frightened off, thrashing Cue Card twice, Sizing Europe likewise, at odds – as short as 1-7 – that reflected both his domination of the discipline and the weight of expectation heaped on to his strong, dark shoulders.